Jeff Staple and G-Eazy: The FN Cover Shoot
With the Nike Dunk SB Low “Pigeon” laced up, G-Eazy (L) speaks with Jeff Staple on location at The Motoring Club in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles.
With the Nike Dunk SB Low “Pigeon” laced up, G-Eazy (L) speaks with Jeff Staple on location at The Motoring Club in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles.
“I love being invited to the corner conference room of a publicly traded, Fortune 100 company and being like, ‘This is the way it’s going to be done.’ I’m not a d**k about it, but I’ve had people on the other side be like, ‘Jeff, we don’t understand this, we don’t get what you’re doing.’ You know what I say? ‘If you understood it, I failed.’”
“I love collaborating more than anything in music. In college, a lot of my friends were music majors. Somebody in the dorms down the hall could play guitar. I couldn’t play guitar, but I could be like, ‘Hey, I’m working on this beat, can you play on this?’ That gave me an appreciation for the collaborative nature of music and expanded my horizons in terms of what was possible. Nobody can experience or see the world the way you have your whole life, so you have something unique to offer — but so do they. If they have something different to bring to the table, that’s a chance to learn more, broaden your horizons and gain a new experience.”
G-Eazy shot at The Motoring Club in Los Angeles exclusively for FN.
“I feel like if you’re somebody with an eye for beautiful design or shapes or colorways, you could apply that sensibility to many different mediums. I’ve been into graphic design since I was 13 or 14 — I used to design my album covers, fliers for my shows. I was into typography and calligraphy. I don’t think the design of automobiles — especially sports cars — is that different from sneaker design.” — G Eazy
Jeff Staple shot at The Motoring Club in Los Angeles exclusively for FN.
I was taking a silkscreen class, and it taught you how to silkscreen on paper. I’d bring prints home to my s**tty apartment in Bushwick, I’d have a stack of prints and be like, ‘This is lame, no one’s coming to Bushwick to see my s**t.’ I was like, I’m going print on a T-shirt, I’m going to get 50 shirts to my friends and now they’re walking billboards for my art. I started printing on tees and the teacher was like, ‘You can’t print on tees in this class.’ So me and a homie left the window of the silkscreen lab unlocked and we would break in and make T-shirts all night. My first Staple order was a 12-shirt order.”
“There’s a certain enigma to beautiful art that it’s not supposed to be understood by everybody. I’ve fought that battle within my music for years, whether it’s the label or my managers being like, ‘I get that you’re passionate about this, I just don’t get it. Maybe it’s not for me.’ And I’m like, ‘Maybe it’s not, but it’s for me, and for that reason I have to get this out of my soul and give it to the world.’”
Jeff Staple (L) and G-Eazy, shot exclusively for FN.